N.Y. Private Housing Finance Law § 63: Legislative findings and declaration

§ 63. Legislative findings and declaration. The legislature hereby

finds and declares that many homeless families live in overcrowded and

often dilapidated welfare hotels in cities with a population of one

million or more; that welfare hotel placements are expensive and yet

offer only minimal shelter services; and that while the state and cities

with a population of one million or more must continue to develop cost

effective alternatives to welfare hotels, ultimately permanent housing

is the only real answer to the homeless problem. It is further found

that absent development of more permanent housing, lengths of stay in

temporary shelters will continue to increase forcing an even more rapid

escalation in the welfare hotel population and the concomitant growth in

total state emergency shelter spending.

The legislature further finds that the New York state infrastructure

trust fund provides a unique opportunity to increase permanent housing

for homeless families. The legislature therefore finds that the state

should dedicate New York state infrastructure trust fund moneys to the

creation of permanent housing for families in cities with a population

of one million or more who are homeless or at risk of being homeless and

primarily for families referred from hotels, motels or tier II shelters

for families; that such state funds shall be matched by an equal amount

of city funding and that the city of New York in the most recent

homeless families plan submitted to the council of the city of New York

by the human resources administration has proposed to provide

eighty-five million dollars for such funding; that permanent housing

projects shall be constructed or rehabilitated and sites selected in

accordance with a homeless families plan.

The legislature further finds that the key elements of such projects

shall be: identification by the city of proposed project sites; review

by an advisory board of the sites proposed by the city in order to

identify those buildings and properties that can be expeditiously

developed and produce the maximum number of units at the lowest cost per

unit; approval of recommended sites by the city; administration of

construction or rehabilitation activities by the New York state housing

finance agency; and selection of a developer or developers to design,

construct or rehabilitate permanent housing projects for homeless

families.